Iceland to stop whaling!
Result! One country down, two to go. Norway and Japan are the only two countries left flying in the face of world opinion, after Iceland's fisheries minister, Einar K. Guofinnsson was quoted by Reuters as saying
"The whaling industry, like any other industry, has to obey the market. If there is no profitability there is no foundation for resuming with the killing of whales".
Guofinnsson said he won't issue a new quota until the "market conditions for whale meat improve" and permission to export whale products to Japan is secured. Presumably, the 5,000 tonnes of whalemeat currently sitting in Japan's coldrooms will need to get sold first.
I had a sense this might happen - while I was at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Anchorage this year, the newly elected Icelandic foreign minister, Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, practically disowned her country's pro-whaling commissioner, saying "we are sacrificing greater interests for lesser ones in this issue". She was referring, of course, to Iceland losing tourism revenue for the sake of a ridiculous whale hunt.
There's hardly any market for whalemeat in Iceland, and Japan is unwilling to purchase North Atlantic whale meat because of fears of contamination, so this year's hunt has been a disaster. Iceland's whalers have only manage to kill 7 minkes and 7 fin whales. They didn't make public the results of contamination testing on the whale meat, and well, no one seems interested in buying their product!
Apart from this disastrous commercial hunt, Iceland conducts a separate "scientific" hunt for minke whales. Beginning in 2003, this was supposed to be a 2-year project to kill 200 whales in 2003. There's one more month of the 2007 whaling season left, yet the scientific hunt is still 6 whales short of that quota, despite four years of whaling.
The "leftover" whalemeat from this so-called "scientific" is also destined for dinner tables, if when they can sell it. The Icelandic minister is recognising that there's simply no market for the meat from the commercial hunt - but he might as well face up to another hard fact: there's just no legitimate scientific reason for killing whales at all!
The Scientific Committee of the IWC reviewed Iceland's scientific programme, and decided not to support it. After all, whale experts from around the world have already ably demonstrated viable alternatives to lethal research - making the killing whales for science completely unnecessary.
Scientific whaling is, after all, just commercial whaling through a loophole. In the absence of either a scientific or commercial rationale, Iceland should simply announce an end to whaling.
There's a good economic reason for Iceland to do, as Ms. Gisladottir intimated . Sparing the six minkes remaining in the scientific quota could earn Icelandic tourism a bonus of $US116.9 million from the 122,000 Greenpeace supporters worldwide who have pledged to consider a visit to Iceland if whaling stops. All the minister has to do is announce he's hanging up the harpoons.
Easy, eh?
Take the Icelandic whales pledge!»
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Comments
You people don´t understand what is going on here at iceland. You only think to save whale at beach and get on television and tell everybody how much life experince this is. Don´t you come here and tell us what to do you have no right to tell us that it is cruel at hunt a whale. Have you taste whale meat? It is f****** good best meat you can get. No fat it is soft big muscles so much more better than beef. I´m 25 years old and i have eaten whale meat for 15 year. Yea we hunt if it is allowed or not you cant stop us. You are dooing well at saving forrest just keep do that. AND TOP OF THE CAKE
WHY DON´T YOU SAY ANYTHING AGAINST WAR IN IRAQ. IS HUMAN LIFES NOT MORE IMPORTANT THAN A WHALE SWIMMING IN OCEAN. I THINK IT IS STRANGE.
Posted by: Óskar Friðbjarnarson | August 25, 2007 2:53 AM
Hi Óskar - we *do* know what's going on in Iceland - we have people there who work with Greenpeace too! We're commending Iceland on this decision - but you're telling us that the government is wrong?
Your fisheries minister has announced that there's not enough demand to sustain a hunt - that's a decision being made by the Iceland government on behalf of the Icelandic people - and nothing to do with Greenpeace!
So, we're not stopping you from hunting - you need to talk to you fisheries minister if you're unhappy with his decision.
Posted by: Dave | August 25, 2007 11:03 AM
Whale hunt in front of whale watching ship!
The August 25 15:06 delivered by Mainichi Shimbun
On 24th august, in Nemuro Channel of the Shiretoko offing, a small coast whaler "7 th Katsu maru" (32t, jointly exploitation
by Shimomichi suisann [1chome Kitajujo, Abashiri city, Hokkaido] and Isonehogei [Taiji town, Wakayama Prefecture])
captured a Baird's Beaked Whale [Berardius bairdii] in front of whale watching ship.
This is not fishing prohibited area indeed, as a result, this whaler whaled in front of a tourist watching the whale behaviour,
and in a neighborhood of a world natural heritage registration sea area. It might cause an argument.【Hiroaki Honma】
According to Haruko Sato (42), guide who got on watching ship "evergreen" (19t), this spot is 14 kilos east of the Rausu port (Rausucho).
About 10:44 a.m., when she discovered 3.5 kilos ahead the whaler and the emitting gas of a whale, it have been harpooned.
20 minutes later, the whale was drawn fore of the whaler.
At a distance of 100 meters, tourists on board, who witnessed the situation till a whale was pulled up on the whaler,
sighed out "feel sorry". One part of a french couple told that she came to "feel sick slightly". The sea was blooded and voices
"the shock" were given by tourists. There was two another watching ship near, one was returned because a child burst into tears.
This whale is length a little over 10 meters, 11-13t in weight.
Being out of the jurisdiction of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), this whaling of that day, that has no problem
about the international resources agreement, is performed under the Japanese proper controle that permitted 66 capture par a
year in the whole country, and four capture a year are assigned to Abashiri base.
Posted by: felis catus | August 25, 2007 3:01 PM
Will countries such as Iceland and Japan ever respond to simple lobbying to stop whaling. you need to create an economic imperative to stop whaling. Boycotting the products of a major company in those counties, such as Honda, will cause the targetted company to pressure the government to stop whaling, and only then give the issue political traction in the whaling countries. What do others think?
PAW
Posted by: PAW | September 25, 2007 3:09 AM
PAW - well, they *have* responded. Boycotting is *not* the way to go on this, especially as in most cases, it's not the entire population that are behind the whaling fleet. See my quote from Icelandic foreign minister, Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir above.
Greenpeace do not want to target the people of Iceland, Norway or Japan, we want to inform them of what exactly is going on!
Posted by: Dave | September 25, 2007 10:23 AM
whale hunting is horrble and it should stop because whales should have a chance to live like another animals and living things please stop it because i think it is horrible and mean PLEASE STOP IT !!
Posted by: fiona ward | December 6, 2007 3:13 PM
what is the difrense betwene fishing and whaleing. if whaleing is murder then fishing is murder why dont you just keep your comments in your one contry and not come to iceland norway or japan . in short greenpease sucks
Posted by: eddik | March 2, 2008 9:02 AM
long time ago when Whales were almost estingushed the fight of Greenpeace was good and they did a good job protecting the Whales. I dont think that fighting against the killing of the whales is the subject that greenpeace should be emphasising on now. The area around Iceland is also well surveyed and checked to decide how much the quota should be of each kind of fish. The demand for Whale meat is also not so high today so the likelyness that any nation would fish to much of whales is diminishing. Here is something that Greenpeace should also remember Whale is just another kind of fish just like Salmon or Cod. But like always ignorant Americans never know what is happening in their own back yard. Then i have to mention Dolphins caught in Tuna nets, the decrease in the Tuna fish because nothing is done to keep quotas under control. But Iceland is a small nation which makes them easy to attack rather than trying to improve the situation in their own back yard. Then again the money that supply Greenpeace mostly comes from Americans and if they would dare to do something about their own problems Greenpeace would fear that they would loose their supporters (It wouldn´t be popular). It is sad to think that Greenpeace is fallen under the power of the money rather than to follow the idealism that they started with in the beginning.
Posted by: Bergur | March 10, 2008 1:28 AM